“It is a huge honour to get the chance to spend a chunk of time in America, to report for the Post and, most of all, to spend time with the team of inspirational reporters and editors. I think I’ll learn so much from them.

“I must admit I giggled slightly the first time I picked up the phone and said to someone ‘it’s Tom Rowley from the Washington Post’. It’s a huge thrill to be here. Firstly, because the Post is in the vanguard of the digital revolution, especially under its new owner, so it’s a fascinating time to be here. But of course I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t huge fun as a journalism nerd to get the chance to work in the same newsroom where Woodward and Bernstein broke Watergate.”

The Stern Fellowship honours legendary Post editor Laurence Stern by bringing a British journalist of exceptional promise to the newsroom each summer.

Oxford graduate Tom, who arrived at the Chronicle and Journal in 2011 as part of his training, added: “I could not have hoped for a better start to my career. The team at the Chronicle and Journal were so friendly that I loved it from the first day. I had a blast working there and learnt so much from the talented team of reporters, photographers and editors.

“It is definitely the friendliest newsroom I’ve worked in, and I was impressed by the dedication of the staff, often turning in three or four stories each day,” added Tom, whose mum and step-dad Gill and Geoff Hockaday still live in Corbridge.

Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron said: “Tom is a talented writer and enterprising reporter who impressed us with his investigation of child abuse on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena, a British territory, and a set of profiles he wrote of Scots weighing the pros and cons of independence. His work also shows a sure hand in capturing a moment, as in pieces he wrote on the reburial of Richard III and the birth of the newest royal baby.”